Under a bill (PCB IN 93-09) passed unanimously by the committee, Florida would use new ``community ratings,`` in which only a person`s age, sex, occupation, use of tobacco or geographic location could be used to adjust his or her insurance premiums up or down.

Every 35-year-old male nonsmoking carpenter who lives in South Florida, for example, would pay the same for insurance -- regardless of his pre-existing medical conditions, the size of his employer or the number of health insurance claims filed by co-workers.

This would outlaw the now routine practice of hitting people who are seriously or chronically ill with catastrophic health insurance increases.

``You`re spreading the risk,`` said Gerald Wester, a lobbyist for several major health insurers who support the new ratings system.

House members also decided to invite more people -- 1.5 million more -- into their plan to pool the power of health insurance purchasers.

Egged on by the governor, the Insurance Committee agreed to allow up to 500,000 state employees plus about 1 million Medicaid recipients into newly created ``community health purchasing alliances.``

``What we`re trying to answer is, `What if you threw a party and nobody came?``` said Doug Cook, executive director of the Agency for Health Care Administration.

``These will now be strong and capable alliances with the ability to offer volume discounts,`` Cook said.

Eleven new regional community health purchasing alliances were created strictly for private businesses of 1 to 50 employees under a separate, already approved House health care reform package. The idea was to try to reach many of Florida`s 2.5 million uninsured persons, a majority of whom either work for small businesses or are dependents of those workers.

But Chiles has insisted that the purchasing alliances need to have access to a greater potential market, namely state workers and Medicaid participants, in order to maximize savings on purchase of health benefits.

An amendment to the bill would have allowed a 20 percent swing above or below the community ratings, but it was rejected. ``It devastates the concept,`` said Rep. John Rayson, D-Pompano Beach. ``It sets people up for a 40 percent swing in their insurance rates.``

The health purchasing alliances would be allowed to have a different community rating than the rest of the private health insurance market, based on the theory that they should be able to offer even lower premiums.